The hundredths of a second played to Tina Maze's advantage this time, as well as to the advantage of Swiss skier Dominique Gisin. Both skiers have become Olympic downhill champions with an exact same time of 1:41,57.
The last bend almost took away the gold
The 30-year-old native of Črna na Koroškem made a determined quick start with a better time than leader Gisin early on. After completing two thirds of the course on extremely fast skis Tina had an advantage of 38 hundredths of a second. On the last bend before the finish line she then lost her ideal posture, however to her luck, and to the luck of her team and all of her Slovenian fans, the dream scenario came true – a downhill Olympic gold!
Beside Tina Maze and Dominique Gisin, one more Swiss skier won a spot on the podium. Lara Gut won the bronze medal.
I remembered my first career race
"After everything I've been through this year, this is something amazing. Before the downhill I remembered the first race in my career, when I had to walk uphill with my skis. I spent all night thinking about that race. That time I won, and I said to myself that I could do it again today. If somebody would have told me two years ago that I would win the Olympic downhill event, I would've told him he was crazy. It was a class performance. I still made some mistakes, but it was enough for victory," was Tina Maze's first reaction after the race. She added: "I can't believe I'm an Olympic champion."
To a gold medal without a downhill ski course!
The entire Team to aMaze was overjoyed. On Monday they were disappointed after the super-combined event when Maze missed out on a medal by a tenth of a second. This time the head of the team and Tina's life partner, Andrea Massi, was very emotional: "Slovenians don't even have a proper downhill ski course… and now we have an Olympic champion."
Coach Mauro Pinni, a Swiss who took over as Tina's coach in the middle of what was a stormy season, was also extremely happy after the race: "I'm more than 100% proud, and at the same time there are also two Swiss skiers on the podium." Tina's physiotherapist, Nežka Poljanšek, also had something to say: "Ever since I was a child I longed to be part of such a world class team. And now this gold has fulfilled my dreams!"
Side by side with Štukelj and Žolnir
Maze has now won her third Olympic medal. Four years ago in Vancouver she won two silver medals. She has become the first Slovenian skier to climb to the top of the winter Mt. Olympus. After judoka Urška Žolnir she has also become only the second female Slovenian with an Olympic gold medal. The first summer Olympic gold medal was won by Leon Štukelj in 1924 in Paris. All together this is the 15th Slovenian winter Olympic medal and the 8th in alpine skiing. Under the flag of independent Slovenia this is the 11th winter medal.
The top ten rounded off by Ilka Štuhec
Ilka Štuhec added to the golden Slovenian day in Roza Hutor. Returning after an injury absence Štuhec started as 27th but finished in 10th place, trailing Maze by only a second.
Maruša Ferk had starting number 6 and was the first Slovenian to ski down the course. However she still hasn't made friends with the Roza Hutor course and trailed behind the then-leader Fabienne Suter by 1,30 seconds. Faster than Suter was Dominique Gisin of Switzerland, who kept the lead only for herself, until Tine Maze's run.
The first two favourites disappointed
The fastest in the super-combined event Julia Mancuso disappointed today finishing only fourth. The number one favourite, Maria Höfl-Riesch, had an even more disappointing race.
At the sunny Roza Hutor ski resort a temperature of 5 degrees Celsius was recorded at the finish line. The elevation difference on the 2.713 meter long female downhill course was 790m. There were 41 gates on the course. Compared to Monday's super-combined event there was a stronger wind today. The snow surface was also different due to the higher temperatures, especially in the lower part of the course, which proved decisive for today’s medals.
